Staying on Top When Your World's Upside Down

Stop doing what isn’t working and try something new

“An absence of overriding personal ambition together with shrewd common sense are among the essential components of wisdom... [There are two common] characteristics of folly: it often does not spring from a great design, and its consequences are frequently a surprise. The folly lies in persisting thereafter.” Barbara Tuchman: The March of Folly

Here’s a great question to ask when your world turns upside down: what attitudes or behaviors should I change because they aren’t working for me? You have probably heard this definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If that’s insane, how crazy is it to double down – to work even harder at those things that have brought you to this present situation?

This is the voice of experience speaking. I had been Chief Operating Office of a large community hospital for five years, and after having been passed over for the CEO position was let go. Had I asked myself that essential question for authenticity – what would I do if every job paid the same and had the same social status? – I would have immediately started Values Coach. Instead, I took a disastrous detour by accepting another COO position at another large hospital. It was only after being fired from that position that I recognized I was on the wrong path in life and could begin doing the work that was the answer to that question – the work I am doing today.

Lisa Bluder is the head coach of The University of Iowa women’s basketball team. Her email signature says “If you want what you’ve never had you must do what you’ve never done.” There is no better time to dream new and bigger dreams than when your world has been turned upside down. There’s also no more important time for you to stop doing the things that have not been working for you and to start doing things you’ve never done before.